10,199 Shares in Ashland Inc. $ASH Acquired by Krilogy Financial LLC

Krilogy Financial LLC bought a new stake in Ashland Inc. (NYSE:ASH) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 10,199 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $517,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of ASH. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Ashland by 284.3% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 3,454,646 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $172,318,000 after acquiring an additional 2,555,585 shares during the last quarter. Ieq Capital LLC boosted its holdings in Ashland by 353.0% in the 2nd quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 250,085 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $12,574,000 after purchasing an additional 194,880 shares during the last quarter. Atlantic Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Ashland by 137.1% in the 2nd quarter. Atlantic Investment Management Inc. now owns 296,320 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $14,899,000 after buying an additional 171,320 shares during the period. 1832 Asset Management L.P. increased its holdings in shares of Ashland by 11.7% during the 2nd quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,371,755 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $68,972,000 after buying an additional 143,230 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Qube Research & Technologies Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Ashland by 32.5% during the 2nd quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 575,146 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $28,918,000 after buying an additional 140,957 shares during the last quarter. 93.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ASH has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Ashland from $51.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, December 19th. Argus upped their price target on Ashland from $65.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 12th. Evercore cut their price objective on Ashland from $62.00 to $53.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 11th. Morgan Stanley set a $63.00 target price on shares of Ashland in a research report on Monday, February 9th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $70.00 target price on shares of Ashland in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $66.67.

Ashland Price Performance

ASH stock opened at $60.90 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $61.08 and its 200 day moving average price is $54.95. Ashland Inc. has a 12-month low of $45.21 and a 12-month high of $67.39. The company has a current ratio of 3.15, a quick ratio of 1.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. The company has a market capitalization of $2.79 billion, a PE ratio of -4.03, a P/E/G ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 0.43.

Ashland (NYSE:ASH) last released its earnings results on Monday, February 2nd. The basic materials company reported $0.26 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.23 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $386.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $401.42 million. Ashland had a positive return on equity of 7.58% and a negative net margin of 38.26%.Ashland’s revenue was down 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.28 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ashland Inc. will post 4.27 EPS for the current year.

Ashland Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, March 15th. Investors of record on Sunday, March 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.415 per share. This represents a $1.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 27th. Ashland’s dividend payout ratio is presently -10.99%.

Ashland Profile

Ashland Inc is a global specialty chemicals company that develops, manufactures and supplies a broad range of performance and process-critical additives, ingredients and technologies. Its portfolio spans performance additives for coatings, adhesives and sealants; specialty ingredients for personal care and pharmaceutical applications; and process aids used in water treatment and other industrial processes. Ashland aims to address customer challenges by delivering tailored solutions that improve product performance, processing efficiency and sustainability outcomes.

Founded in 1924 as the Ashland Oil & Refining Company, the firm gradually expanded into the specialty chemicals sector over the second half of the 20th century.